[SESSION SKREE. ERR, START.] [ Welcome to Leafbury Center, Connecticut, small town that all three of you call home. ] [ Zoom in on the Gastonbury University campus, of old brick buildings and creeping ivy, where the three of you find yourselves today for your own reasons. Although details may be sketchy, the faintest of impressions and memories from a very bizarre dream a few nights past may be rushing through your skull of late. ] [ This is the Quad, directly outside Kessenheit Museum, the university's surprising collection of ancient writings and artifacts from eastern Europe. ] [ A particular exhibition of a book known only as the 'Vienna Scroll' has just opened, and because I control the vertical and the horizontal and you are my toys, each of you has decided to come see it, for whatever reason you desire to make up. ] (It's an old book. I'm there. ;p) [ For those of you keeping up with the soundtrack, the current BGM is Suikoden 2 -- "Occupied Town" ] [ Go! ] [ Since some people are insistent on knowing this kind of thing, the date is Thursday, October 10th, 2002. ] [ The current time is 4:35pm. ] [ Now go, god damnit. ] * Eric walks in through the doors of the museum, laptop case slung over his shoulder. He makes a beeline for the Vienna Scroll exhibit. * Gerard is milling about in the museum, casually looking at some of the exhibits he already knows. He smiles faintly and chuckles at a couple of them, working his way towards the Vienna Scroll. [ The Kessenheit Museum is very old world. The floors are hardwood and the central gallery is wide, with tall windows high on tall walls. A divided central staircase leads upstairs to the main exhibit gallery. Eric thankfully does not need to roll to climb stairs. ] [ It is very quiet, although there's the background murmur present in all public galleries, and the somewhat jarring sound of sensible shoes on hardwood floor, though even that fades into the background with time. ] * Eric hopes that there aren't too many people there already. [ Despite the publicizing, only classics majors appear to be here. Apparently, it's not a major breakthrough. ] * Eric murmurs to himself. "I want a good look at this." ( You alive, Cham? ^_^ ) * Beatrice strides into the museum, walking purposefully (yet cheerfully) towards the staircase, eyes not even bothering to stray to the familiar surroundings. She grins, shifts her emerald green backback slightly, and starts half-running up the steps. [ If any of you happens to see one of the other, you can feel a faint tug at the back of your head. Something familiar. ] * Gerard mms at one of the exhibits, touches the panel on it, and shakes his head. He moves along towards the Vienna Scroll some more. * Eric reaches the exhibit and waits for the people standing in front of the display to move, so he can study the book. * Eric is pretty much focused on seeing the exhibit and isn't really noticing any of the other people there. * Beatrice bounces up the steps and starts walking towards the new exhibit. She looks back over her shoulder in Gerard's general direction, frowning for a second, and then continues on her merry way. [ The central gallery is actually more like a atrium; a domed glass ceiling with gold etching lets slivers of fading fall sunlight bathe the room in gold. In an surprising twist, the 'Vienna Scroll', which is actually more of a large leatherbound book, is sitting on a pedestal. A professor, a mousy-looking woman even Eric and Gerard don't recognize, is giving a speech about it to a classics lecture. ] * Beatrice reaches the display and elbows past Eric and a few other people to get as close as she can to the book. * Gerard has turned from the exhibits now, and walks into the central gallery. He takes in the professor and the class... and the girl elobwing forward, making a dissapproving hmm noise. [ There are ropes. Thank god. ] * Eric half-listens to the woman's speech while eyeing the book. He barely acknowledges Beatrice as she pushes past him, although he feels a slight start on contact with her. Professor: "The so-called 'Vienna Scroll' was actually found in Warsaw, in the burned-out remains of a very old bookstore that was found below street level. As you know, in Europe after fires, occasionally it was more economical to simply build OVER the remains. Thus little treasure troves like that library were occasionally found..." * Beatrice leans over the ropes slightly and peers at the book with a rather involved disinterest. * Eric idly wonders how anyone could possibly build over a library. [ The book itself isn't all that impressive looking, except for the fact that the placard dates it from the 1500's, yet it apparently has survived completely intact instead of turning to dust. The cover is brown leather, and it's about the size of a large portrait album. ] * Beatrice mutters "A lot of fuss over a dusty old book." under her breath. Professor: "Scientists are amazed at the book's state, seemingly unable to explain it, but unwilling to test too deeply for fear of destroying it. The book's story is apparently a fictional history of a city called 'Lucia, the City of Lights', which some feel may be a coincidental reference to Paris..." * Gerard looks at the professor again, and furrows his brow in thought, trying to make sure he's never seen her before. * Eric decides to get a closer look, and carefully slips past a few people until he's standing next to Beatrice. A fictional history, huh? Fascinating... [ A few classics majors give Eric a dirty look, but they're not being quizzed on what the book looks like, so nobody makes a fuss. ] Professor: "It tells the story of a boy who, in an unnamed forest which some suspect may be the Black Forest, discovers another book called the 'Terra Gospel'. Using its secrets, he becomes king of a nation he names 'Mullenwald' and erects Lucia in celebration of this book..." [ As she says this, the book flips open to a page. You can see a drawing of the young man on the facing page, in Renaissance style. He's leaning against a tree. ] * Eric blinks, somewhat surprised that the book moved on its own. He then studies the page intently. Why pass up such a great opportunity? ( Does Eric speak German, Polish, or Russian? ) (German, yes.) * Beatrice blinks. "Woah. That's new. I wonder why they didn't say it would be animated?" She peers at the book. * Gerard also looks surprised at the book's motion, his eyes being pulled to the page, although at a distance. Professor: "After the building of Lucia, the book becomes surprisingly incomprehensible, shifting into a language which bears a faint resemblence to Sanskrit but which linguists have so far been unable to translate." * Eric moves his lips as he reads the page, managing to understand a good bit of it. [ The book flips pages to another illustrated page, this of the central clock tower of Lucia, an old-style Bavarian thing covered in sparkling lights that you could SWEAR are actually shining. nobody but you three seem to be noticing this stuff, but the classics folk are watching the professor, not you. ] * Gerard catches the shining nature of the page in his eye, and moves closer. (Did the language change on this one?) ( I'm getting to it. My hand hurts a bit and I'm typing slow. ) (Sorry. ^^;) * Eric keeps reading, his eyes shifting back to the picture from time to time. * Eric whispers. "This is really amazing..." Professor: "As you can see, it's bound in leather, and a rather large book." She moves to stand BY the pedestal, giving Eric and Bea a curious look. "Any questions?" * Beatrice stares curiously at the pages. "Wish I could read it better. My German's only practical." [ The book IS sparkling. Everybody is looking in its direction and nobody's cried out "GHOST!" yet. ] Could we see the part where it changes to the other language? Please? The professor blinks at Eric. "Oh, it's best not to open the book outside a sealed environment. We don't want to tempt fate even if it is well-preserved." * Beatrice looks up at the professor, then at Eric, then at the book again. Her eyes are wide. * Eric looks slightly embarassed and somewhat puzzled. "Oh, of course. Sorry." * Beatrice nudges Eric. "It _is_ open, isn't it?" She looks worried. (That was whispered.) * Eric looks down at Beatrice and blinks. "Yeah," he whispers back. "You see it too?" The professor smiles condescendingly, like a tour guide, and looks around. "Any other questions?" [ The book flips pages again. No pictures this time. The script is definitely NOT German. If you know Arabic, it looks like a bizarre combination of Arabic and Sanskrit. ] * Beatrice nods idly, then blinks again. * Eric stares at the book. "Okay, I can't make that out at all," he whispers. The professor smiles again. "Well, then, I know your regular professor's prepared some refreshments downstairs in the reception room, so if you'll follow me..." She starts to troop the classics folk out of the room; soon, you three are the only ones left, unless you leave with them. * Eric sticks around, because he wants to look at this some more. * Beatrice moves around the book, staring at it. "So if the book's not meant to be opened, then this must be a fake, right?" Her voice has returned to normal. * Eric shakes his head. "But the professor seemed to think it was closed." [ None of you are historians, but just judging from the weathered quality, if it's a fake, it's a damn good fake. ] From her reaction, that is. (I'm not a historian? ;_;) ( Oh, you're still here? ) Yeah, but some of these professors are more dotty than my dad gets at times, and he's pretty bad. ( Well, yes, it's obvious to YOU that it's definitely too old to be a fake, but since you haven't said anything in over 15 minutes it was easy to forget about you. :P ) (Fair enough.) * Eric chuckles. "Well, I haven't really worked with any rare books, so I'm not an expert or anything, but it certainly *looks* real." * Gerard walks foward towards the book, and Eric and Beatrice. "I'll agree with the young man. That's no fake." [ The book flips pages again. The script is still unreadable. The facing page has an illustration of a desert oasis. You can detect a faint amount of heat shimmer around the picture, and those around the pedestal can actually feel a bit of warmth. ] * Eric turns to look at Gerard, and experiences the same start as he did when Beatrice bumped him. * Eric suddenly feels a bit warm, and turns back to the book. "Is that... is that coming from the *book*?" * Gerard frowns. "The languages, the look of the pages, and the date..." he looks surprised, and puts his hand out to feel towards the book. Maybe she's just stupid... or maybe something else. It's got to be a trick of the light or something, right? [ The closer you put any appendage toward the book, the more hot and humid the air feels. ] * Eric puts his hand out and then quickly jerks it back. "What's going on here?" * Beatrice eyes the book. "That's not right, is it?" * Gerard pulls his hand back. "No, it's not. The most convincing trick I've ever seen, if it is one." [ The book isn't answering. It looks smug. ] * Eric looks up at the ceiling. "Maybe there's a leak coming in from somewhere? That has to be it, right?" He sounds fairly uncertain. [ The nearest radiator is a modern wall unit against the south wall, 20 feet away. The only thing around you is the pedestal, the ropes, and the hardwood floor. ] * Gerard frowns. "I take it from your earlier conversation that you saw it open as well?" * Eric nods quickly. * Beatrice nods. I could read the first few pages. I couldn't, but I got the gist of it. Looks like the professor was right for the first bit of it. [ The book flips pages again. It's about 3/4 of the way through. The script is still unreadable. The image is of a sand dune with a body in it, dressed in white robes and lying motionless. It's a young woman with tanned skin, and she's probably dead. The air remains warm but loses humidity. ] * Eric frowns at the new image. * Beatrice peers at the image. "Well, that's unpleasant." * Gerard eyes the book again, and purses his lips. "Yes it is. I'm more interested in why it is moving, and where it really came from." * Eric nods. "Me too. Books just don't move on their own." [ If it weren't a book, it might be offended at the notion. ] Maybe it's an air thing? Although listening to the excuses people give when they can't find the ones they checked out, you'd think they could. * Eric holds out a hand towards the book. "I don't feel any draft that strong. And it'd be hard to get the cover open to begin with." [ That is definitely true. The cover is leather but it looks damn heavy. There are gold cornerpieces. ] * Beatrice shrugs. "Maybe we're hallucinating?" Maybe. [ As Eric's hand gets close, it does feel warm. A small amount of yellow sparks jump between his fingers and the page. ] Yow! * Eric yanks his hand back. [ There's no sense of shock, but the sparks *did* appear. ] * Gerard frowns to himself, and snaps his fingers. "Aha! You work at the library. I knew you looked familiar..." His eyes widen. "Even stranger." What was *that*?! ( Well, I say sense of shock as in "You don't feel like you felt an electric charge." ) * Beatrice gapes at the book. "I have no idea." ( There is room for other senses of shock. ;) It didn't feel like anything, but... * Eric shakes his head and turns to Gerard. "Oh, yeah. I do work there sometimes." He extends his hand. "Eric Corwin." * Beatrice reaches out to the book as well. [ Bea's fingers let out a couple green sparks as they get closer to the book. ] * Gerard grasps his hand, and shakes it firmly. "Doctor Gerard Markel. I teach History here." * Beatrice jerks back, almost entangling herself in the cordon, and ends up on her butt. "Ack!" Nice to meet you, Doctor, and... * Eric stares at the sparks, and at Beatrice. "Are you okay?" * Eric bends down and extends a hand to help her up. * Gerard frowns, and while Eric looks towards Beatrice, he reaches close to the book as well. * Beatrice takes Eric's hand and gets up, rubbing her hip. "Yeah." She looks abashed. "Just startled." [ The book starts sending yellow and green sparks into the air, almost like embers from a fire. It shuts itself back to the unlabelled cover. ] * Eric nods at Beatrice and then stares at the book. "Okay, this is *freaky.*" [ Blue sparks leap from Gerard's fingers, and the book starts sending up blue as well. ] [ After a moment, there is a sound, like the turning of an antique key in a lock. Then the glass ceiling explodes. ] * Gerard looks at the fireworks, and pulls his hand back. "Three colors now... aah!" He dives to the ground. * Beatrice shrieks and drops to her knees, covering her head. * Eric ducks and covers his head. "Oh my god!" [ The sound of so many fragments of glass is actually sort of celestial, for a moment, and then it suddenly stops. If you didn't shut your eyes, or when you open them, you see everything has gone monochromatic. Shards of broken glass hover about in complete stasis. ] * Eric lowers his hands and looks around. "What the...?" [ It's *quiet*. You three are in color, as is the book. It's still giving off sparks. ] * Gerard stays down for a second, and then looks up when he isn't pelted with glass. "Bloody... amazing." He eyes one of the hovering glass shards. * Gerard stands as he does so, too. [ For those of you keeping up with the soundtrack, the current BGM is Kingdom Hearts Disc 1, Track 13 -- "Night of Fate" ] What's going on? Why are we... what's *with* that thing? * Eric points at the book. [ There's a black sun in a white sky above. The wind is starting to pick up, and it's decidedly chilly. ] * Beatrice lifts up and stares. "Oh, wow... pretty, kinda." She rises to her feet, kind of oblivious. She looks up at the sun, then down at the book. * Eric shivers. "Maybe... maybe this is all a dream. Yeah." * Gerard says, with a slight smile, "A dream, hum? I don't think so. I wasn't asleep before classes today." [ As if on cue, an immense hand suddenly clamps onto the room from outside with an immense *THUMP*. A giant, gaunt skeletal head emerges in your view with a terrifying roar. ] No, it can't be. I didn't sit down... I left my mom at the faculty meeting and... Aah!" She shrieks again. * Eric lets out a strangled cry and takes a few steps backwards before turning and running for the stairway. [ Eric gets to where the door SHOULD be and manages not to run straight into the door, which is mysteriously shut. ] * Eric frantically yanks on the handle. * Gerard looks shocked, and grasps the cane in his left hand tightly. "What in the world?" [ The door appears to be in the same stasis everything else is. It doesn't budge. The head's immense, sunken eyes dart back and forth, taking all three of you in. The stench of decay is becoming quite prominent. A voice in your heads, VERY faint, cries: "The book!" ] * Beatrice has not moved, frozen in position. She stares upward, mouth wide open. * Eric gives the handle one last yank before turning and looking back at the book. [ The book is sparking pretty heavily, now. The immense skeleton's hand takes a sudden swipe toward you and it, and is blocked by an unseen field, which flickers brief shades of yellow, green, and blue on impact. The voice is more insistent. "The book! It can't protect you here forever!" ] * Eric races to the book. * Beatrice snaps out of her daze and dashes towards the pedestal. * Gerard doesn't dash, but rather, is already nearby. He instead gets closer, and puts his right hand on it. "Voices in my head, what else will happen?" * Eric reaches out and puts his hand on the book as well. "I don't know. I just want to get out of here!" [ The voice, now faint but obviously female, sounds strained. The skeleton hits the 'field' again but is repelled, and it roars angry defiance. "You must accept!" the voice pleads. "Say the words, 'I accept three!'. You must become part of the story..." ] ( Thee. Not three. ) ( z.z ) * Eric doesn't hesitate. "I accept thee!" * Beatrice touches the book. "Earth spirits help us!" She slaps her palm on the book and shouts "I accept thee!" * Gerard says, "There's no choice. I accept thee!" [ *Everything* goes white. You feel... very nauseous, and as if you're being pulled at from all directions. The voice whispers, before your consciousness fades entirely, "I'm sorry. It's the only way..." ] [ Then everything goes black for a while. When your senses return, you feel as if you've been sleeping for days but your eyes refuse to open. You're in something very warm, and a big prickly. ] * Beatrice squirms uncomfortably. * Eric groans and tries to open his eyes. [ Soundtrack change. Suikoden 3 OST, Disc 2 Track 22 -- "Searching for the Ancient Hero" ] [ If you manage to open your eyes, which is hard but not impossible, you'll find you're in straw. Warm, clean straw. In what appears to be a somewhat small barn. Slivers of sunlight filter through the wood, and you can hear birds chirping. ] Uhhhhhh... where are we? * Gerard stretches. Or tries to, anyway. "Mmm..." [ You ache. Whatever the hell happened, it hurt a lot, but that is at least in the past. ] [ The barn appears to be free of animals. ] Ugh .... straw? Did I fall asleep tending Windrider? Not unless you had company in the stable with you. * Eric winces as he talks. Even that hurts. * Gerard opens his eyes, and winces too. "Well, alive is as good as I could expect, with that... thing." * Eric shudders. "What the *hell* was that?" * Beatrice tries to make it to a sitting position and moans as she does so. "Oh... I feel like he rode *over* me." She rubs her neck gingerly. "So if you're both here it wasn't a dream." [ Dreams don't smell like a barn full of hay. ] * Eric tries to sit up. "Dreams don't hurt this much." [ That too. ] I'd say that would have to depend on the dream, Mister Corwin. * Eric shakes his head. "Well, I've never had a dream that hurt this much, Doctor." * Gerard tries to sit up too, and look around. "Other than the pain, there's no major injuries?" [ Nobody appears to have broken anything, except his/her fragile little mind. ] * Eric rubs at his forehead and listens intently. "No, I don't think so. It sounds like there's water outside... maybe a stream or something. We could go wash off." * Beatrice grins. "No, I think I'm okay." * Beatrice tries to get to her feet, idly brushing straw off. * Eric finally pushes himself into a sitting position, and realizes that he's still carrying his laptop. He quickly opens the case and checks for signs of damage. [ The barn's not that big. It's full of farming stuff instead of husbandry stuff: pitchforks and bags of fertilizer, seeds and other things. No plow, curiously. The door is fairly wide and shut with a heavy wooden bar but other than that is unremarkable. ] * Gerard shakes his head. "I can't imagine... ugh." He tries to stand shakily. [ Eric's laptop is AWOL. ] Oh, *crap*! [ In fact, anything you were carrying except your own clothes and perhaps some simple tools like a pocketknife are gone. ] Dammit! * Eric checks his pockets, too. Empty. [ Gerard's cane is accounted for, however. ] * Gerard says, "Is something wrong?" He pushes himself up using his cane. My laptop's gone! Everything else, too... cell phone, wallet... * Eric eyes his surroundings. "Although I'm beginning to doubt they'd be of much use here..." * Beatrice checks her pockets. "My cellphone... my PDA! Oh, my dad's going to kill me." * Eric zips up the empty case and finally manages to push himself into a standing position. He brushes some straw out of his ponytail. *I'm* so dead. [ Actually, the aches and the smell of dry hay seem to be proving otherwise. The buzzing of insects accompanies the sounds of birdsong. ] * Gerard frowns, and pats for his wallet. "Well, in truth, we could have died there. I think losing some of our personal items is a small price to pay." * Eric sighs. "True." * Eric shoves his glasses back up his nose. "Not much we can do about it now, I guess. Let's find the stream." * Beatrice looks around. "Yeah... hey, are we in Amish country? Awesome! I've ALWAYS wanted to go to Amish country, but my parents never have the time." [ You may in fact be in Amish country. From inside a barn, there's no way to tell, however. ] * Gerard eyes Beatrice. "You're a strange one. And I've seen you around campus. I have to ask, who are you?" * Beatrice stops poring over the farm implements to look at Gerard. "My name's Beatrice. Irene, really, but that's such a nasty name. You can call me Bea." She smiles. * Eric walks up to the door. "Okay, Bea." He tries to push the wooden bar up. * Gerard says, "Bea. And..." he looks thoughtful for a second. "Who are your parents? You mentioned them before?" * Beatrice follows Eric. "My parents are the professors Featherston." [ The bar does, in fact, push up fairly easily. The door stays shut, though. ] ( That is to say, the door doesn't swing open without the bar there. ) * Eric pushes at the door. [ The door doesn't move. Apparently, it opens in. ] * Gerard uses his cane to actually move along, for once, towards the door, saying somewhat absently, "Aah. That would explain it." * Eric looks slightly embarassed for a second, and then pulls on the door. "What do your parents teach?" [ The door starts pulling open. When it finally GETS open, Eric finds himself looking down the barrel of an antique-style gun, held by a middle-aged woman with fiery red curls and a white streak running from her temple over her left eye. She wears a red cloak and has just cocked the safety on her pistol. ] "Hi! My name is Remi Harmon, and you have 60 seconds to tell me why you're in my barn." * Beatrice counts on her fingers. "Ecology, Ecological Biology, Darwinian Ecosystems, Ecology And You, Ethics of Ecology... a couple others. And my mom teaches a bunch of Biology courses like ... oh!" * Eric throws his arms in the air. "Don't shoot! Please!" [ SESSION END! ]